Hard Nox
by Nerabot
Summary: It's playdate time for Nox. Mirage and Hound's sparkling! Who is the lucky one to take care of this. Perfect. Innocent. Angel?


A white and blue bot stood in the doorway, watching the tiny forest green bot recharging in it's crib. Yellow optics sofened as the sparkling clicked in it's recharge and turned over hugging the stuffed bird. Strong rugged arms circled the spymasters waste and a helm rested on his shoulder. Mirage sighed gently as love and reassurance flowed over the bond with the forest green tracker.

"He'll be fine,'Raj."

"I know but I can't help but to worry. It's my job."

Hound smiled, "Not this orn it isn't. Your job is to relax, not worry."

Mirage made a sound mixed between doubt and agreement. Hound gently pulled Mirage away from the room and let the room door shut and spun him around and grabbed his shoulders gently with a soft look in his optics.

"Please he loves hanging around with everyone here. He'll be in base, surrounded by all these loving bots." He smirked, "especially sparkling crazed minibot seekers."

Mirage smiled and couldn't help a chuckle, "I know. I trust each and every one of them."

He seemed to get sheepish, "It's our sparkling, how do you not worry?"

Hounds deminer changed and he leered at his bondmate, "I can think of a few things."

Hound leaned in to kiss Mirage when there was a knock on their door. Mirage peeked Hound on the cheek ridge before wiggling out of his arms and went to the door. He opened it to see the smiling faceplates of a black minibot seeker with yellow on her forearms, from hips to thighs, and yellow strips on her wings, her gray face was lit up by a blue visor.

"Hey, Mirage!"

"Hello, Nera. Come in." Mirage moves aside and allowed her to walk in. She nodded to Hound, "hey Hound."

"Hey Nera!"

Mirage closed the door and joined the other two, "Sorry, I was going to wake Nox but you came before I had the chance i'm afraid."

Nera waved it off, "It's okay. I kind of came early, always excited to see Nox, he's adorable!" she gushed.

Hearing Hound laugh and seeing Mirage smile she smiled sheepishly, "Sorry."

Hound waved it off, "No problem. Maybe you can help me make Mirage not worry, he's been doing it all orn and it hasn't even started yet!"

Nera smiled again, "Oh Mirage, you know he'll be fine, hes is with _me_ after all."

Mirage smirked, "I know, it makes me worry that you will corrupt my sparkling."

The miniseeker threw the spymaster an innocent smile, "not any more than you can already do."

A chirrup from the room behind the group cut off Mirage's response as he excused himself to pick up the sparkling. When Mirage came back, he had Nox curled in his arms. Both Nera and Hound smiled, Hound turned away to grab a small cube. Nox rubbed his optics with a small yawn but perked up as Hound appeared with his energon. Mirage took the cube and moved Nox into a comfortable position and started to feed the green sparkling who looked just like himself. Nox was getting more curious the more he grew, he was trying to take in everything all at once and when he spotted Nera he smiled around his cube and waved both his arms in his way of waving a hello. Mirage directed his attention back to the cube and when Nox finished he wiggled to get down.

Mirage obliged him and set him down, instantly he began to unsteadily walk his way over to the black and yellow bot. She was fun and gave him treats! Even better is when they went up and up and up! It was his favorite.

Nera pick him up when he latched onto her leg with a squeal, "Hey buddy! Ready for some fun?"

The sparkling nodded and began chirping, having a one sided conversation for the most part. Nera nodded to Hound who gave his own little nod, "Alright, since you clearly have things under control here we will be going now."

Hound said while pushing Mirage towards the door. Mirage sputtered and resisted a little, he looked over his shoulder at the pair, "remember he just had his energon so nothing so rough so fast! Don't let him out of your sight! He's been wondering around more and more and he has been more curious about the outside!"

Nera just waved and used one of Nox's servos to wave, "Goodbye! Bye! Have fun! Remember to relax!"

Nox giggled and chirped his goodbye. After the door shut, cutting them from view Nera looked down at Nox, who looked up at Nera with big innocent blue optics. Smiling and giving Nox a little tickle, "What would you like to do first?"

Nox twittered and patted her chassis while pointing to his room and towards the blocks stashed in the corner. After blocks, playing with cars, and despite her better judgement, paints, and a tedious bathtime with a hungry sparkling. She made her way down to the recroom. She carried the crying sparkling in with pride, ignoring the helms that turned her way when she entered. She bounced the sparkling while she fittled with the dispenser and moved Nox to a more comfortable position and showed him the cube. Wiggling it to get his attention and then feeding him.

"Ya know," Sunstreaker said watching them wiry, like Nera was going to throw the sparkling at him at any moment, "For having quiet creator and being so small he sure can scream."

Nera laughed, "just wait until he gets upset or cranky. Kind of reminds me of you."

Sunstreaker scoffed, "I am not!"

Nera just nodded, "Right, right, only when it's about your paintjob."

Sunstreaker growled and set his cube down harshly, "Listen here microchip-!"

Nera slowly stood up, her wings fanning out and the slow scraping of her chair made the room freeze, she looked at his optics from under her visor, "No _you_ listen here bolt-helm. This sparkling is precious and if you say other wise you will have a very, _very_ bad time. Understand?"

Sunstreaker just nodded his helm. Femmes could be scary some times. Not that he would every admit that, he had a reputation to maintain after all.

Nera sat back down and continued to feed Nox like nothing happened. Jazz and Bumblebee walked in and Jazz scanned the room while Bumblebee walked to the dispenser to fill two cubes, Jazz smiled before she swaggered over to the table where the twins and Nera were and sat next to Sideswipe casually, "Hey mechs. Femmes and sparkling respectively." he added with a wink of his own.

"Hey Jazz." they chorused.

Bumblebee set down Jazz's cube in front of him and sat next to Nera with his own cube, "Little bot orn this orn?" he said looking at Nox who was struggling to stay awake while drinking.

Nera smiled and nodded, "Yeah, needs to be creators orn too."

Bumblebee laughed, "I don't doubt. He can be a servo full."

Nera chuckled, "Only when he wants too."

"So, what about you Nera? Ya want a sparkling of your own?" Jazz asked in a quiet voice as they watched Nox fall into recharge.

Nera watched him for a little bit before slowly smiling wide, "Yeah, I think I'd like to have my own one orn."

The twins and Jazz looked from her to Bumblebee, who ignored the three, and back to each other with a grin. Nera carefully stood up and bid the table farewell to put Nox down in a wheeled crib/playpin that Wheeljack had made for easy transportation. She pushed it down the hall to her quarters. After making sure he was well and truly asleep she grabbed a datapad and she sat on her berth and started reading, accidentally falling into her own recharge.

* * *

The sound of a door opening and closing stirred her from recharge. She rubbed at her optics under the visor and slowly sat up looking around slightly confused. The sound finally registered and she got up and looked around only to find no one around. A deep sinking feeling made her rush to the pin on the other side of the room only to find it empty. Her spark dropped and she bolted for the door that opened automatically. She threw her servos on her helm in despair, how could she forget that she set the door for motion so she could easily roll the pin in and out! She dashed out calling the sparklings name only to run into Bluestreak.

"Hey Nera! Hows it going? I heard you before I turned the corner how is-"

"Have you seen him?" She cut him off.

"Him? You mean Nox? No I just turned-"

"You have to help me find him! I had the door set to motion activate and now he's gone!"

"Why would you do that?"

"No time to explain!" She reached up and grabbed his shoulders, "help me find him before Hound and Mirage get back!"

Bluestreak nodded, understanding the situation.

"You go that way!" she pointed to the hall they were in, "I'll go this way!" she pointed the other way, "comm me if you find him."

Bluestreak nodded and they each took off. Nera, after looking down every hallway, every storage closet, and now she was looking through rooms. She was currently crawling through the vents when her commlink pinged. She stopped to answer, hope swelling in her spark. Someone must have found him!

:Hello?:

:Hello, Nera.:

Her spark sank at the smooth aristocratic voice that flowed over the line.

:Mirage!:

There was a pause, :Yes, it's me. I know i'm supposed to relax but I wanted to know how he was doing?:

:Good! Great! He's perfect as always!: She said a bit hastily.

:Are you sure? You don't sound okay, maybe we should come-:

:No! No, no, you're meant to be relaxing, don't bother yourself. We are just playing that's all.:

:We aren't that far, we could come back.:

:You're not allowed to come back until you relax, understood Mirage?: Nera said with as much force as she could while scrambling out of the vents.

When Mirage didn't answer Nera stopped, her spark freezing hoping Mirage didn't catch on, :Well, alright then. We will be back in a few joors anyway.:

Nera slumped, :No rush. Take your time. See you soon, bye.:

Nera cut the line with a sigh. This was going to end in disaster! She made a comm out to the others about their arrival time and everyone redoubled their efforts.

* * *

Nera slid down the hall wall and covered her face with her servos. Two joors. The entire base had been looking for two. Full. Joors. This was it. She was going to be offlined by two very angry creators. They looked every place possible inside the ARK. With every breem she was accepting her fate when a thought came. _Inside the Ark_. They didn't look outside. She bolted up and sprinted to the entrance. Mirage said Nox was getting more curious, he didn't like it when he was even younger. She went out and circled around the base of the mountain and stopped when she finally saw it.

There, in the clearing, curled into a tiny ball on his side, was the lost green sparkling that resembled his Carrier, recharging in the Earth's sunlight. Her whole frame trembled with relief as she walked over and scooped him up. He cracked open an optic to look at who it was and gave a twitter before curling into her frame. Nera sighed and started inside, she commed everyone to le-t them know she found him and to go back to relaxing. As soon as she put him in the pin and started to wheel him out , she almost ran right into said sparklings creators. Her wings gave a startled jerk, "Oh hey! Have a good Orn?"

they smiled at the miniseeker, "A wonderful time, thank you for watching him."

She laughed it off, "No, no problem at all! He's like a sibling to me!"

"Indeed. Are you sure he was alright?"

She waved both servos, "He was perfect as usual. No need to worry!"

Mirage just sighed and Hound gave his servo a squeeze.

"Do I need to keep him longer just to get you to relax, Mirage?"

The spymasters face turned to surprise, "No, no, that won't be necessary."

Mirage grabbed the pin, "Thank you again, Nera."

"Thanks for the help!" Hound said following Mirage.

She sighed when the door closed and slid down it while muttering, "A servofull indeed."


End file.
